How create a freaking text?

Software / Firmware
1

Hey guys :slight_smile: so I have inventor 2014, freecad, 123d design etc. and for the life of me, i cant figure out how to do a simple 2d text that i can use as dxf with estcam and work it in to our machines.

Ultimately i just wanna carve my name, or anything. what are you guys using for such simple tasks?
thanks

2

I am opening inventor right now to play with it. But if you just want the 2d profile you can use the text tool in autocad to write the text and then use command “txtexp” to explode the text into separate lines.

Edit: in inventor you just have to create a sketch, and use the text tool to choose your font, size, and write what you want. Then finish the sketch, and extrude the text a little bit. Then export as a dxf file.

Edit2: actually you have to export as a dwg file that can be opened by autocad. ultimately it is easier to just use autocad.

3

so i tried EDIT 1 :slight_smile: did the text, and extruded it a bit, but for some reason when i imported it in to estlcam it only showed the square border, not the text inside.

autocad is a paid for program is it not? i already own inventor.

also if i export a DWG , estlcam cant see it :slight_smile:

thanks for your help

4

How do you own inventor? Is it a student license? If so, you can get autocad 2016 and inventor hsm (has cam software built in) 2016 for free. Otherwise it would probably be a similar cost to inventor. There are many other 2d cad programs and I think many of them will export to a .dxf file, but I don’t know which ones are good. As a student I am always up to date with the latest autodesk products.

5

I don’t know about inventor or autocad, but in Inkscape, after you create text, before you save as dxf, you have to select the text and choose Object to Path on the menu. Maybe inventor has a similar thing to change text to paths before exporting. Or you could just get inkscape - it’s free, though the learning curve’s a little steep (at least it was for me).

6

For my “Danger Zone” cut, I just imported any dxf file (because estlcam won’t let you make text without it) and then I used the estlcam text tool. I used the “Stencil” font, which worked pretty well. There are a bunch of options in there, one of them is to make the output part of the drawing, and then you can mess with doing the cam.